Page 80 - Classical Chinese Furniture from Heveningham Hall may 28 2021 hk.pdf

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AN IMPORTANT AND VERY RARE LARGE A very similarly rendered dragon, along with the other three animals of
the four cardinal points, can be found decorating the casket cover of
GILT-COPPER DRAGON PLAQUE a Liao dynasty painted wood coffin unearthed in 1965 from a tomb at
LIAO DYNASTY (AD 907-1125) Lingzidonggou, Guangdegong, Wengniute Banner, north of Chifeng.
See Empires Beyond the Great Wall, Natural History Museum of Los
Cast as a ferocious three-clawed, scaly dragon shown striding Angeles County, March - August 1994, fig. 72. See, also, the group of
with its mouth open in a roar revealing long pointed fangs and the four wood carvings of the four directional animals, including a similarly
tongue, with a pair of sweptback horns above the trailing, wind- depicted dragon, excavated in Baomotugacha in Chaogewendu
blown mane, and short spines along the backbone leading to Township, Wengniute Banner, included in the exhibition, Gilded
the long tail. The edges are adapted with small pierced tabs for Splendor - Treasures from China's Liao Empire (907-1125), Asia Society,
attachment. New York, 2006, pp. 198-205, no. 48a-d. Also included in the exhibition,
pp. 224-5, no. 55, was a gilt-bronze mirror decorated with a similar
62 in. (157.5 cm.) long dragon encircling the central knob, which was excavated from the
tomb of Yelü Yuzhi and Chonggun at Hansumu Township, Aluke'erqin
HK$2,000,000-3,000,000 US$260,000-390,000 Banner. A Liao gilded silver crown also displaying similar striding
dragons is illustrated by E.C. Bunker and J.M. White, Adornment for the
PROVENANCE Body and Soul, Hong Kong, 1999, no. 90.
Acquired in Hong Kong in the late 1970s.
Christie’s, New York, 17 September 2008, lot 579
The Heveningham Hall Collection 遼 鎏金銅三爪龍形匾
EXHIBITED 來源
Traverse City, Dennos Museum Center, Northwestern Michigan 1970 年代購於香港
College, Land of the Dragons: 6000 Years of Chinese Art, 17 March - 紐約佳士得，2008 年 9 月 17 日，拍品編號 579
1 September 2002. 赫維寧漢莊園珍藏
This magnificent, lavishly gilded copper plaque likely represents
the Azure Dragon of the East, one of the animal symbols of the four 展覽
directions (Sishen or Siling, the Four Divinities). The other animals are 美國密歇根州特拉弗斯城，西北密歇根學院 Dennos 博物館
the White Tiger of the East, the Vermillion Bird of the South and the 中心，《Land of the Dragons: 6000 Years of Chinese Art》，
Dark Warrior of the North. This animal symbolism orginated in central
China and was well established by the Han dynasty, when images of 2002年3月17日－9月1日。
the four directional animals were frequently represented in tombs. In a
funerary context, such imagery, illustrating the temporal or directional
order of the universe, embodied talismanic powers and would have
served an apotropeic function.
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